CIAC girls cross country championships: Brining, Lyme-Old Lyme take Class S crowns

Runners in Class S girls race take to the course during the CIAC Girls Cross Country Championships on Saturday, October 31, 2026 at Wickham Park in Manchester. (Jim Shannon/Hearst Connecticut Media) Six CIAC girls cross country teams and runners will be crowned champions on Saturday at Wickham Park in Manchester. Here's the rundown.Brining, Lyme-Old Lyme take Class S girls crownsHale-Ray freshman Ashley Brining has had plenty of experience running at Wickham Park entering the Class S girls race, despite being in her first year of high school."I know that I'm a really good runner," Brining said. "I won states in seventh grade, and I was a really good runner in eighth grade, too, so I knew that I could do it."Brining holds the middle school record at Wickham Park, and her goal Saturday was to win the Class S championship. She did just that in 19:19.3. It wasn't a personal best, but the goal was a victory."I try really hard, and I work really hard, and I have some really big goals, so I'm really trying to work as hard as I can and put everything into it," said Brining, who was already thinking about future races like the New England championship, which follows the State Open.In another big-time team battle, Lyme-Old Lyme defeated Shepaug, 49-51. In terms of team scoring, the Wildcats finished second, third, eighth, 14th and 22nd on the way to the first state championship in program history. The Spartans were first, ninth, 10th, 12th and 19th.Full resultsOxford's DeLuise wins Class SS individual crownJunior Callie DeLuise of Oxford was running in second early in the race, but took over the lead just after the halfway point and cruised to a win in the Class SS race, finishing first with a personal-best time of 18:49.1. Rebecca Langlais of Tolland was second in 19:04.5."Rebecca and I were going back and forth and switching positions, and after the green monster, I fell back a bit," DeLuise said. "Suddenly, I felt really good and I decided to just kick to the end and see how I could do."Senior Charlotte Behnke of Haddam-Killingworth finished third at 19.37.6, and sophomore Alyssa Behnke of Haddam-Killingworth came in fourth at 20:14.0. Full resultsWasiolek, Mercy run to Class M crownsMercy junior Cora Wasiolek ran to a victory in the Class M race with a time of 18:58.6, ahead of second-place finisher Edith Edie Ranta of RHAM, who came in at 19:12.5."In the beginning, I just wanted to stay up with the leaders, and when it felt right, I decided to go," Wasiolek said. "Going down to the woods is where I made my first burst, right after mile one. Then I just wanted to keep it the rest of the way."Harper Vanacore of Sheehan was third at 19:50.1 and Charlotte Kenney of Branford came in fourth at 19:57.8.Mercy won the team title with a score of 26, well ahead of second-place Hand, which came in with 106. Mercy had Alyson Low (20:02.1) in fifth and Addison Akier (20:04.1) in sixth.Full resultsClass MM1:50 p.m.Full resultsClass L2:50 p.m.Full resultsClass LL3:50 p.m.Full resultsSign up for the Connecticut Briefing from CT Insider. Get the biggest headlines of the day from our network of journalists around the state.This article originally published at CIAC girls cross country championships: Brining, Lyme-Old Lyme take Class S crowns.